Posts in Category: pediatric cardiology

The 28th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Society of Echocardiography, the premier event for bringing together echo experts from around the world to share learning and networking opportunities, will take place June 2-6 in Baltimore, Md.

This year, the Scientific Sessions will highlight the cycle of introducing new advances into clinical medicine: investigation-innovation-incorporation. These three themes are integrated throughout the program and cover a broad range of topics related to cardiovascular ultrasound.

LUMEDX will be at ASE in force, manning Booth 617 at the Baltimore Convention center. Please drop by to see our latest workflow and data intelligence solutions.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta built a customizable STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database Module that improves the quality of patient care through the use of STS National Database benchmarks and evidence-based medicine. By adding additional fields to those defined by STS, Children’s has a more complete, patient-focused congenital database. Find out more.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) hasn’t changed how Americans rate their healthcare, according to a new Gallup poll. More than half of the respondents rated their healthcare good or excellent, but less than 24 percent were satisfied with healthcare costs. Healthcare coverage was rated positively by only 33 percent.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given clearance for diagnostic reading of electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms on mobile tablets and desktop displays using Carestream’sVue Motion universal viewer. The new capability would allow physicians to give faster responses to ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and other serious heart conditions. It would also allow physicians to simultaneously view current and prior ECGs using tools that include pan, zoom, line measurement, caliper, and gain and speed adjustments.

After one year, patients with long coronary lesions who were implanted with an intravascular ultrasound-guided everolimus-eluting stent had a significantly lower rate of major adverse cardiac events compared with those implanted with an angiography-guided stent, according to cardiovascularbusiness.com. “Patients were implanted with an everolimus-eluting stent (Xience prime, Abbott Vascular) for long coronary lesions and randomized to receive intravascular ultrasound-guided or angiographic-guided stent implantation immediately after their pre-PCI angiogram,” the site reports. One year later, 2.9 percent of patients undergoing intravascular ultrasound-guided stent implantation suffered major adverse cardiac events, compared with 5.8 percent of patients in the angiographic-guided group.

Rijuven’s CardioSleeve for Pediatrics, the first device that adds electrocardiogram (ECG) capabilities to transform stethoscopes into smart, mobile-connected devices, has been cleared by the FDA. The device, which can be attached to any stethoscope, can analyze for arrhythmia or murmur and identify heart failure.

The use of dual antiplatelet therapy consisting of clopidogrel and aspirin–as opposed to aspirin alone–led to fewer and less severe migraine headaches for patients undergoing transcatheter atrial septal defect (ASD) closure. That’s according to a randomized, double-blind trial. About 15 percent of patients had new-onset migraine episodes following transcatheterASD closure, previous studies found.

The first app-based remote monitoring system in the U.S. for patients with implantable pacemakers–called MyCareLink Smart Monitor–was approved by the FDA on Nov. 17. The system, manufactured by Medtronic, has a mobile app that is available for free on Android and Apple platforms. It also features a handheld portable device reader.

According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), the pool of candidates that can be treated with statins can be expanded to 67% of all U.S. adults between the ages of 40-75. It is projected that this could prevent an additional 161,560 cardiovascular events, including heart attack, stroke, and others.

Cardiovascular Business reports on the five-year results from the PARTNER I trial (Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves Trial), which show that 5 years after implant, "valves showed no signs of deterioration with durable hemodynamics." With risk down, GlobalData now projects that the compound annual growth rate for TAVR valves will increase 19.7% between 2013 and 2020.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new heart failure drug by Novartis, which has been met with considerable support from the medical community. The drug - Entresto - is the first in a new class of drugs called angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors that is used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure while enhancing neurohormonal systems.

LUMEDX has published a new position paper, "Transforming Pediatric Echo Management: Breakthroughs in CVIS." The paper focuses on pediatric cardiology programs and how they can increase efficiency in diagnosis and treatment by deploying information systems that deliver immediate access to complete, longitudinal patient records.